Chapter 282: Four or Five

Regardless of how An Wuzhi had previously tricked people for the divine fire, after spending a long time with someone, they inevitably leave a mark, and their absence then creates a sense of loss.

Despite this, Shi Chun still had no intention of retreating. Precisely because An Wuzhi had already fallen for this, he could even less afford to give up easily.

He was not like Xu Anchang and the others, who would cower when faced with danger or the risk of exposure.

As long as the battle between Mount Shudao and the Ice Jiao remained undecided, he would not leave easily. If Mount Shudao could slay the Ice Jiao, it would prove whether or not there were five divine fires inside the Ice Jiao. If there truly were, three of them would be his.

He wasn't afraid at all; he would definitely step out and demand them.

If it was proven that there were five divine fires, then his cooperation with Mount Shudao could continue. As for the recent conflict, it was purely due to Mount Shudao's own misunderstanding, and he couldn't be blamed.

All in all, as long as he could help Mount Shudao find more divine fires, not only would Gu Lianni forgive him, but all the living disciples of Mount Shudao would also forgive him. The opinions of the dead wouldn't matter.

Thus, his stance was firm. The more critical the moment, and the more unstable people's morale, the more a leader had to persevere and not easily waver in their resolve.

Shi Chun changed the subject, saying, "The five of you, go find out if Xu Anchang and the others are still alive."

Seeing him like this, Chu Jingfang and the others had nothing more to say. Led by Wu Jinliang, they searched along the escape route of the Four Tripod Sect.

This was what "fighting to the death" meant. The Ice Jiao at this moment was fighting to the death. Each time it was struck down with a world-shaking crash, it would rise again to attack. Moreover, like a single-minded creature, it desperately charged towards the Azure Rainbow Sword-shadow.

It would charge up only to be struck down; after being struck down, it would rise again, ceaselessly.

Shockwaves continuously erupted in the air, rippling out in all directions.

Gu Lianni, who was repeatedly controlling the Azure Rainbow Sword-shadow to strike, gradually became flustered. She found that each time she pierced the Ice Jiao with a sword strike, its wounds would quickly heal, as if it couldn't be killed.

Although after repeated attacks, she could feel the Ice Jiao's offensive power gradually weakening, she also felt that the power contained within her "Azure Soul Refining Rainbow Sword" was diminishing. If this continued, her magic weapon might become unusable first.

The name of the magic weapon itself indicated its connection to her. It was a magic weapon personally forged for her by her father.

Her fellow disciples also saw that something was wrong. Yuan Yao called out, "Auntie-Master, this can't go on. Let's retreat."

Gu Lianni refused, saying, "No, we must find a way to retrieve the artifacts of the Soul-Locking Array. Otherwise, it will be very difficult for us to capture divine fires later."

At this, Yuan Yao also got a headache. Indeed, without the aid of the Soul-Locking Array, it would be very troublesome to blindly search like those smaller sects.

The problem was, the sect probably hadn't anticipated such an ancient monster in the Divine Fire Domain. It must have evaded countless rounds of searches by Divine Fire Covenant personnel to survive.

Pang Hou suddenly shouted loudly, "Let me lend you a hand!"

As he spoke, he had already produced a treasure pagoda about three feet tall, named "Myriad Child Reincarnation Pagoda." Holding it out with one palm, he activated it with a spell. Immediately, an orange-yellow light erupted from the pagoda's body, and its tiered eaves began to spin rapidly.

Gu Lianni, who had just struck down the Ice Jiao with a sword, looked back and immediately cried out in alarm, "No!"

But it was already too late. The treasure pagoda in Pang Hou's hand had already smashed down. Judging by Pang Hou's expression, he looked quite fierce, as if vowing to deal with that beast.

The pagoda's shadow, radiating orange-yellow light, had already slammed towards the Ice Jiao that had crashed to the ground.

*Clang!* With a resounding crash, it only managed to dent a small pit in the Ice Jiao's scales. Then, it spun rapidly, and countless flying blades shot out from the pagoda's body. They resembled wind scales, but their number far exceeded that of wind scales. They expanded like a tornado, enveloping the Ice Jiao's head and trying to crush it.

A series of dense clanging sounds erupted. If any cultivator suffered this attack, they would likely be pulverized, but striking the Ice Jiao, it was difficult to inflict even the slightest damage.

"Pull it back!" Gu Lianni urgently shouted again.

Before her words even finished, the Ice Jiao lashed out with its tail, knocking away many flying blades, and then smashed its tail onto the orange-yellow glowing pagoda body.

*Boom!* The pagoda was sent flying like a meteor. The orange-yellow light-shadow was directly knocked out of the pagoda, forming a winged centipede shadow, which disintegrated on the spot.

Then, countless flying blades instantly lost balance and fell like rain.

Pang Hou cried out in agony, "My pagoda!"

He quickly chased after the fading pagoda shadow.

All the disciples of Mount Shudao felt a pang of distress. Such a fine magic weapon was actually rendered useless by a single strike from the Ice Jiao, as if its spirit had been shattered.

Yuan Yao was also somewhat speechless, thinking, "Our magic weapons aren't strong enough to harm it at all. Weren't you just asking for it?"

Gu Lianni had no time for these thoughts. The Ice Jiao charged up again, and she could only summon her Azure Rainbow Flying Sword to strike again, once again knocking the Ice Jiao to the ground.

After several more repetitions, Yuan Yao approached her and suggested, "Auntie-Master, Shi Chun was able to trick us; we can use the same method to lure others here. If we can slay the Ice Jiao with the help of others, we can retrieve our Soul-Locking Array artifacts."

Gu Lianni was overjoyed to hear this. After striking down the Ice Jiao with her sword once more, she instructed, "Have everyone retreat first!"

Worried about her safety, Yuan Yao wanted to object, but on second thought, it was unavoidable. None of the other people's magic weapons could suppress this Ice Jiao; only his junior aunt-master could stay behind to cover their retreat.

"Retreat, quick retreat! Everyone, withdraw to the next target location first."

Under Yuan Yao's urgent calls, a group of Mount Shudao disciples quickly flew away. Yuan Yao himself did not leave but stayed by her side.

The Azure Rainbow Sword-shadow continued its thunderous attacks for a while. Once she confirmed that her fellow disciples had gone far, Gu Lianni struck down the Ice Jiao with another sword strike and shouted loudly, "Go!"

The Azure Rainbow, like a streak of light, returned to its sheath. Yuan Yao also mounted his wind scale and urgently chased after her.

The Ice Jiao, thrashing on the ground, let out a roaring "whoosh," its wounds on its body healed once more. With a swing, it soared into the air and actually flew up to pursue them.

It could actually fly.

It was understandable that when strength reached a certain level, there would be commonalities in some aspects. The dark clouds in the sky were continuously torn apart as it flew, revealing the starry night. Its massive body pursued relentlessly.

Shi Chun, observing from afar, was somewhat speechless. "Mount Shudao conceded defeat and ran away because they couldn't win?"

Seeing Gu Lianni easily knock down the Ice Jiao with each sword strike, he had thought their chances of winning were high. It turned out that after all that, they were also at the end of their rope.

This was somewhat disappointing. Not only had he invested his manpower, but he had also lost a divine fire.

Perhaps sensing the commotion, not long after, the group from Bright Mountain Sect also flew over. Wu Jinliang asked, "Chun, they just ran away?"

"A huge loss," Shi Chun muttered to himself. He asked, "Did you find them?"

Wu Jinliang replied, "Couldn't find them, and there's no way to look, really. You see that huge area, piled with massive ice blocks. Who knows which block they're buried under? We whispered their names all the way, but heard no response. They're either dead or they ran away."

Shi Chun thought for a moment and said, "If they truly ran away, they must have gone to Iron Forest. We'll know for sure if we check there later. If they didn't go back, they've probably really fallen here. We might have to come back and search again later."

Wu Jinliang: "Why look for them if they're dead?"

Shi Chun: "They should have magic weapons on them. I suspect they have magic weapons no weaker than Mount Shudao's."

As soon as he said this, the eyes of the few people present all lit up.

*Clap!* Wu Jinliang suddenly clapped his hands in approval. He turned to Hao Ji and said, "You, quickly go back to Iron Forest and see if they've returned. If they haven't, report back immediately. If they have, you don't need to run back; just wait for us there."

Chu Jingfang and Shen Moming wanted to leave this troublesome place and volunteer for this task. But Hao Ji didn't give them a chance to speak; he simply said "Alright" and immediately ran off.

As soon as he left, Wu Jinliang immediately laughed loudly, saying, "What are you standing around for? Go search! Nearly half of Mount Shudao's disciples must have fallen here, right? Have you forgotten that they all have wind scales on them? A single wind scale can buy a mansion in the royal capital. Some even have Cosmos Bags! Everyone, how can we miss such a chance for wealth bestowed by the heavens?"

These words indeed made their eyes light up. But Chu Jingfang then asked with some worry, "That Ice Jiao won't come back, will it?"

Little did they know, Wu Jinliang had sent Hao Ji back to Iron Forest precisely because he was worried about this. He feared wasting time on Xu Anchang and the others and wanted to dig up as many treasures as possible before the Ice Jiao returned. Of course, it would be best if the Ice Jiao didn't return at all.

The losses were not small, and Shi Chun also believed they should seize this opportunity for wealth. So he said, "Don't worry, I'll keep watch for you."

Wu Jinliang knew about Shi Chun's special ability with his right eye. He immediately chuckled, "With the Big Boss keeping watch, there's no problem. Even if the Ice Jiao comes back here, we can retreat in time. Let's go, let's go, quickly search, quickly search, hurry up!"

With potential benefits, they were invigorated. The group quickly headed to the center of the incident area to begin their search from there.

Shi Chun first flew into the air and used his right eye's special ability to observe. He saw no signs of living people. The shadows of the dead were too blurry for him to discern them, so there was no need to waste time on that.

However, his right eye could still make out some things when comparing them to other objects in this environment. For example, sandalwood gold (even scattered pieces, especially concentrated ones), weapons, and metallic substances like wind scales could reveal clues upon careful observation on this ice plain.

So he was almost always accurate in his findings. But he couldn't show it, nor was it convenient for him to search personally. His main task was to observe his surroundings and prevent the Ice Jiao from returning.

So he could only hint to Wu Jinliang and have Wu Jinliang find a way to guide everyone. Most of the time, he stood at a high vantage point, keeping watch.

During the search, small sounds of joyful cheers and suppressed delight occasionally arose.

There were also occasional sighs of regret. Some wind scales had been damaged by the ice block attacks hurled by the Ice Jiao, making them difficult to reassemble and control. The defective ones were unusable, but they were all collected in case they could find someone to repair them later.

In any case, after a while, everyone had at least one wind scale in their pockets. They also found two Cosmos Bags; Chu Jingfang and An Wuzhi each fastened one to their waist. Everyone's faces were beaming with smiles.

It was indeed quite dangerous, but one had to admit, with this speed of accumulating wealth, how many years of hard work would it take to amass this much in the outside world? Perhaps a lifetime wouldn't be enough.

As they continued searching, the artifacts of Mount Shudao's Soul-Locking Array were also gradually found by them. Even if unusable, they were treasures, so they collected them for now.

Shi Chun, who periodically ascended to survey his surroundings, suddenly noticed something amiss. He wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. In the sight of his right eye's special ability, why were there five people working together to overturn large ice blocks?

Hao Ji had left, so shouldn't there be only four left?

He immediately flew over. Landing on a tall ice hummock, he looked down. Identifying them one by one, he saw Wu Jinliang, Chu Jingfang, An Wuzhi, Tong Mingshan, and Shen Moming. *Huh?* He counted on his fingers again; indeed, there were five, and they were all his own people.

But he still felt the number was off. Then his eyes sharpened, and he finally realized what the problem was, his gaze fixing on the cheerful An Wuzhi.

Confirming it was correct, he jumped down, landing in front of An Wuzhi. He said in surprise, "You're not dead?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the other four also froze, one after another. They all stared at An Wuzhi, somewhat dumbfounded. They had all forgotten when this guy had appeared beside them; he had apparently been busy working with them for quite a while, and no one had even realized it.

"Damn!" Wu Jinliang suddenly exclaimed, "An Wuzhi, how did you get back?"

An Wuzhi seemed somewhat unable to comprehend their reactions. "The fighting at the beginning was too chaotic. After I was blasted into the ice, I didn't dare to move. Later, when things quieted down, I melted the ice and dug myself out. Hearing the commotion, I came over. Seeing you all busy, I couldn't just stand by, could I? How else would I have gotten back?"